How To Get Faster At Megaminx ?

Megaminx is definitely one of the most interesting events in the WCA; being so different yet it’s similar to a 3×3 cube at the same time and having more faces than any other WCA puzzle.

This blog is written assuming you already know F2L on 3×3 and can solve a megaminx using F2L principles, and will help you in bringing your megaminx solving time to under a minute.

Note - this is just a rough plan, and collection of tips based on what I did when I was starting out with megaminx and what I think is the best way to approach megaminx.

First of all, you should learn 4 look last layer if you don’t know it already. It consists of 2 look OLL and 2 look PLL. This is something that is usually looked down on 3×3 since learning OLL and PLL is not a very lengthy task. Once you learn it, it will save quite a lot of time, solving a 3×3. When it comes to Megaminx though, the amount of algorithms eclipses those of 3×3. Unless you’re at a sub-45 level, it’s not recommended to learn PLL, and it’s best to wait till you’re world class before learning OLL. This is because the amount of effort you put into learning these algorithms would save much more time if used somewhere else.

This is the only thing you need to actively learn, till you get to sub 50 or so; everything else mostly just comes intuitively and by practice.

Coming to practice, it’s by far the most important thing you need to do to get good at megaminx. Do as many solves as you can. Try to learn where you’re going wrong, check what splits you’re getting, compare them with other cubers who take as much time as you, and do slow solves. Keep doing this till you get where you want to.

Focus on improving your F2L and S2L much more than solving last layer. The last layer forms such a small part of the time you take to solve a megaminx that it should only be actively improved when you feel it would give a better ROI on your effort than focusing on the other components would.

All this time, you should also watch as many example solve videos as possible and keep implementing the techniques used. Don’t watch videos that are meant for speeds much faster than your current speed though, it will only confuse you and not add any  value.

Hope this helps you get to where you want to be at in Megaminx solving!